Before starting your field work you must ask permission (depending on the type of location). First, make sure you feel safe when you are in/around the location and the subculture. When asking permission, make sure that you explain to those that are in the subculture what it is that you will be doing. You don't want to get halfway through your research and then hit a brick wall. It's polite to shoot short thank you notes or emails to those who grant you permission and to make sure that they are aware of your presence every time you visit. If you have chosen an actual location (not online) you may want to actually have the individual in charge sign a permission form to make sure you will be allowed to continue visiting the site throughout the semester.
THE BELMONT REPORT (EIIW 125-139) Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research April 1979
Due to abuse of human subjects from biomedical research experiments
Established codes for conducting ethical research
Three Basic Principles:
oRespect for Persons/Participants/Those involved or effected
oBeneficence: Wellbeing of participants is a top priority
oJustice: Who receives benefits and burdens that arise from the research
Informed Consent from those involved
Comprehension: Make sure everyone is very clear on what this research entails
Voluntariness: free of coercion and influence
Risk and Benefit analysis
If participants are considered vulnerable, their involvement may need to be justified
INFORMED CONSENT FORM RESOURCES
Your Informed Consent form should be two parts. 1) A very brief bulleted list explaining what you’re doing (look at the two lists below) 2) A form for your participant to sign (look at the example from FW pg 121)
Refer to the checklist on page 139 in EIIW:
Who are you
Why are you conducting this research
How to contact you if participant decides against participating
How to contact instructor if participant has a problem with your research or the way you conduct it
What you want to find out (What’s your research question)
What will you do with what you learn
How will you store the info the participant helps you gather
How will you protect the participants’ confidentiality
Why have you chosen this person as a participant
Refer to List 1-10 on pages 117-119 in EIIW:
Explain purpose
Promises and reciprocity (what do they get out of this?)
Risk assessment (what could they lose?)
Confidentiality
Informed Consent
Data access and ownership
Interviewer health
Advice
Data collection boundaries
Ethical vs. Legal
Consider the ICF example on page 121 of FW:
This ICF is a good example of what the page your participant signs should look like. It’s very simple and short but clear. There’s a line for the signature, date, contact info, and a pseudonym option (some participants want to remain anonymous)
NOTE: Remember your audience for this form. These are not 1302 college students. You may need to adjust your language/prose (this may not be an academic audience), explain complex terms (like ethnography and literacy), and keep it very short and to the point (they don’t want to read a five page form).
THREE QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
What surprised me?
What intrigued me?
What disturbed me?
Pages 88-89 in FW offer these questions. You should consider them during free writing reflective sessions after you visit your site.
Let's experiment with these three questions. Keep in mind the purpose of this semester's research project and some of the things we have discussed in the past. By researching different cultures we are able to learn about them. We get to look at literacies and figure out what it is that they do for the communities and how people interact with those literacies. By writing an ethnography you get the opportunity to jump out of what's familiar and discover subcultures and their literacies.
We may have some fans in this class, but let's look at fandom for this example. What is it?
The community that surrounds a tv show/movie/book etc. Fanfiction writers, artists, poets, and cosplayers are all members of that fandom. Fandoms often consist of message boards, livejournal communities, and people.
-Urban Dictionary
Today we're doing a "mini-ethnography"... Watch this video and imagine that you are taking some notes on fan culture. Pay attention to the literacies (of course) but also just keep in mind the assumptions you had before today about fandom, what you've picked up in the last few minutes, and what this video discusses.
Now answer our 3 questions: 1) What surprised me? 2) What intrigued me? 3) What disturbed me?
HOW CAN BIAS, BAGGAGE, AND PERSONAL AGENDAS POSSIBLY FACTOR INTO THIS?
REFLEXIVITY “Remember: ethnography celebrates the fact that the researcher interprets the data he or she collects. As such, the researcher becomes part of the data. The narrative you create from your ethnography should include information about yourself, how you came to this project, and what you experienced as a result of your values, beliefs, and previous experiences” (Adkins 121).
Why am I making this decision?
How do my personal views, beliefs, and values affect how I am seeing these events?
How does my presence here change or affect this place or these people?
How is my interpretation of these events, this place, or these people affected by my views, beliefs, values, and experiences?
Am I reporting on these events, this place, or these people as it/they really are, or am I interpreting this research in this way because it more accurately suits what I hoped I would find?
Permission and Safety Lecture- FW 119
Before starting your field work you must ask permission (depending on the type of location). First, make sure you feel safe when you are in/around the location and the subculture. When asking permission, make sure that you explain to those that are in the subculture what it is that you will be doing. You don't want to get halfway through your research and then hit a brick wall. It's polite to shoot short thank you notes or emails to those who grant you permission and to make sure that they are aware of your presence every time you visit. If you have chosen an actual location (not online) you may want to actually have the individual in charge sign a permission form to make sure you will be allowed to continue visiting the site throughout the semester.
THE BELMONT REPORT (EIIW 125-139)
Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research
April 1979
INFORMED CONSENT FORM RESOURCES
Your Informed Consent form should be two parts.
1) A very brief bulleted list explaining what you’re doing (look at the two lists below)
2) A form for your participant to sign (look at the example from FW pg 121)
Refer to the checklist on page 139 in EIIW:
Refer to List 1-10 on pages 117-119 in EIIW:
Consider the ICF example on page 121 of FW:
NOTE: Remember your audience for this form. These are not 1302 college students. You may need to adjust your language/prose (this may not be an academic audience), explain complex terms (like ethnography and literacy), and keep it very short and to the point (they don’t want to read a five page form).
THREE QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
- What surprised me?
- What intrigued me?
- What disturbed me?
Pages 88-89 in FW offer these questions. You should consider them during free writing reflective sessions after you visit your site.Let's experiment with these three questions. Keep in mind the purpose of this semester's research project and some of the things we have discussed in the past.
By researching different cultures we are able to learn about them.
We get to look at literacies and figure out what it is that they do for the communities and how people interact with those literacies.
By writing an ethnography you get the opportunity to jump out of what's familiar and discover subcultures and their literacies.
We may have some fans in this class, but let's look at fandom for this example. What is it?
Today we're doing a "mini-ethnography"... Watch this video and imagine that you are taking some notes on fan culture. Pay attention to the literacies (of course) but also just keep in mind the assumptions you had before today about fandom, what you've picked up in the last few minutes, and what this video discusses.
http://devour.com/video/can-fandom-change-society/
Now answer our 3 questions:
1) What surprised me?
2) What intrigued me?
3) What disturbed me?
HOW CAN BIAS, BAGGAGE, AND PERSONAL AGENDAS POSSIBLY FACTOR INTO THIS?
REFLEXIVITY
“Remember: ethnography celebrates the fact that the researcher interprets the data he or she collects. As such, the researcher becomes part of the data. The narrative you create from your ethnography should include information about yourself, how you came to this project, and what you experienced as a result of your values, beliefs, and previous experiences” (Adkins 121).